Webinar: Maintaining an Organized Computer

As I continue the search for a photo to accompany my entry for the BIFHSGO writing competition I'm thinking I might benefit from Wednesday's free FamilyTreeWebinars offering, to be given by Cyndi Ingle at 8 pm EST.

Description:Files here, programs there, lost bits and bytes everywhere. Are you tired of searching your computer fruitlessly? Frustrated when you can't find the notes you created in your word processor? Learn how to set up a foolproof filing system and an electronic workbook to correspond with your offline research.

Cyndi is the creator, owner and "webmaster" of the award-winning web site Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet.

WikiTree and GeneaBloggersTRIBE Scan-a-Thon

The following announcement was written by WikiTree and the GeneaBloggersTRIBE:

On the weekend of January 11-14, 2019, WikiTree and GeneaBloggersTRIBE will kick off the new year by hosting a 72-hour image scanning marathon. Genealogists and family historians from around the world are invited to participate.

The goal of the Scan-a-Thon is to scan and upload photos and other items such as letters, postcards, funeral cards, and primary documents. Like a marathon, this is a competition to see who can do the most, but most participants won’t be serious competitors. Most will be doing it for the sake of preserving family history.

Find out more at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Scan-a-Thon

What’s Coming to FamilySearch in 2019

Most of the announcements at www.familysearch.org/blog/en/familysearch-2019-whats-coming/ don't excite.

Most notable is:

The FamilySearch Family Tree search capacity will be significantly updated to provide faster and better results. Another innovation will allow search engines such as Google to present names and limited facts from the Family Tree to online search queries without the searcher being signed into FamilySearch.org. This feature will enable millions of people searching for their ancestors online to discover the vast, free services FamilySearch offers them.

There's also mention of RootsTech London, 24-26 October, 2019, at the ExCel London Convention Center.

Heritage Made Digital - the newspapers

The British Library is now going beyond its Findmypast partnership and the British Newspaper Archive to digitize further legacy newspapers.

Why this new initiative?

"... the British Library has 60 million newspapers, from 1619 to the present day. After a decade or more of intensive work, we have digitised just 5%. There is a long, long way to go."

The greater part of newspapers processed by Findmypast come from our microfilmed copies, because it is so much easier and quicker to do so (about eighteen times quicker than digitising from print). But only a third of our collection of some 60 million newspaper issues has been microfilmed. Of the newspapers for which we have only print, some get digitised, but many do not. In part this is because of the condition of many of newspapers, often produced using low-quality newsprint and for many years not stored in optimum conditions. We define preservation status of our newspapers under three categories: good, poor and unfit. Unfit no one gets to see, even onsite, unless we have a microfilm or digital access version. And around 4.5% of our collection (or 20 million pages) is in an unfit state and with no microfilmed or digitised copy available. That's a lot of newspapers not to be making available at all.

Read the full article here.

Help Improve FreeBMD

The following is a notice from one of my top genealogy websites — FreeBMD

The FreeBMD website will be undergoing a revamp over the next few months. The new website, which will run alongside the current one, will be in line with the design used for sister projects FreeCEN and FreeREG. We want to make sure that it continues to provide the service that family history researchers know and love, whilst possibly incorporating new features that will improve your experience.
We're asking you in this form, for how and why you use FreeBMD, and what, if any, improvements you would like to see. Please make your responses as clear as possible. If you feel you have more to say than the question structure allows, please make a note and use the answer space in the final question to tell us.

Start here.

Rootstech Live Streaming Schedule

For those of us choosing not to attend Rootstech in Salt Lake City, 27 February - 2 March 2019 the schedule of free streamed presentations is now published at www.rootstech.org/salt-lake/live-stream-schedule.
I've added the start time for the Eastern Time Zone in red.

Wednesday 27 February

9:30 a.m. 11:30 a.m. : What’s New at FamilySearch? 
Ron Tanner of FamilySearch International reviews the latest features and capabilities released on FamilySearch, their value, and why the changes were made. See the future of FamilySearch.

11:00 a.m. 1:00 p.m.: Hear Them Sing! Social History and Family Narrative 
Join Rebecca Whitman Koford as she discusses how the addition of social history enhances family narratives and clarifies the songs of our ancestors. She will discuss how to contextualize ancestors’ lives with social history research and use it to inspire others to want to know more about those who have passed.

1:30 p.m. 3:30 p.m. : Uncovering Family Stories with British and Irish Historic Newspapers (Sponsored by Findmypast) 
Myko Clelland discusses the numerous digitized collection of millions of pages of local and national historic newspapers, covering 300 years of history from every county in Britain and Ireland. Get the full scoop with the Findmypast vast collection, and discover how to make the most of the stories contained within this huge resource.

3:00 p.m. 5:00 p.m.:  Connecting Your DNA Matches 
Diahan Southard takes you through your DNA match list and explains the Shared Matches tool. Learn how to create and employ a number of tools to boost your confidence in your genetic genealogy skills.

4:30 p.m. 6:30 p.m.: Wednesday General Session and Opening Event 
Steve Rockwood, CEO of FamilySearch International, will be the featured keynote speaker and will explore the connections that come through genealogy. Entertainment will be provided by the world-renowned a cappella group The Edge Effect.

Thursday 28 February

8:00 a.m. 10:00 a.m. : Making the Leap—Becoming a Professional Genealogist (Power Hour) 
In this power hour session, Luana Darby, Valerie Elkins, and Anne Teerlink explore how to make a successful transition from hobbyist to a career as a professional. Learn about the importance of diversifying your talents, and discover the ways to earn income as a genealogist.

9:30 a.m.11:30 a.m.  : Finally! German Church Records and How to Use Them on FamilySearch 
Join Trish Melander, and explore the German Church records that are now being published on FamilySearch. These are records rich in centuries of history and contain baptisms, marriages, burials, and even confirmations.

11:00 a.m. 1:00 p.m.: Thursday General Session: Patricia Heaton 
Nobody knows family quite like Emmy award-winning actress Patricia Heaton. Known for her humorous roles as a typical American housewife in big hit television series’ like Everybody Loves Raymond and The Middle, Patricia has won many prestigious awards and the hearts of television viewers worldwide. Don’t miss this opportunity to watch one of the most recognized actresses in the world tell her story in person—a story that perfectly illustrates what it looks like to follow your heart, exercise faith, and persist until you achieve great success.

1:30 p.m. 3:30 p.m.: What You Don’t Know about Ancestry (Sponsored by Ancestry) 
Join Crista Cowan, and preview Ancestry’s cool new tools that are geared to improve and accelerate your family history research.

3:00 p.m. 5:00 p.m.: “Jumping the Broom,” Oil, Inheritance, and African American Marriage in the South 
Kenyatta Berry will cover the tradition of jumping the broom, the informal marriage ceremony for the enslaved. Kenyatta will also share the story of her paternal ancestors in Arkansas and East Texas, and she will detail how she used primary and secondary sources to discover her ancestor’s connection to the oil industry in Arkansas and Texas.

4:30 p.m. 6:30 p.m.: Perilous Assumptions: Revisiting Those First Finds 
Despite the best of intentions, many family history researchers make incorrect assumptions about records that don’t quite fit. Kris Rzepczynski will explore false assumptions, revisiting those mistakes, and the family history discoveries that may await.

Friday 1 March

8:00 a.m. 10:00 a.m.: Why and How to Put Yourself into Your Family History (Power Hour) 
In family history, it’s easy to overlook ourselves and the generations we know because we don’t feel like history! But you are a part of your family history. In this Power Hour, Curt Witcher, senior manager of the Genealogy Center, will show you why putting yourself into your family history is so important (along with the science to back it up!). Amy Johnson Crow, author and host of the Generations Cafe podcast, will show you how you can include yourself without getting overwhelmed. Scott Fisher, host of the Extreme Genes radio show, will show you interview techniques to get more (and better) stories.

9:30 a.m. 11:30 a.m. : Essential Considerations for DNA Evidence 
Blaine Bettinger will explain how to use DNA evidence correctly and correlated with documentary evidence. In this session he will examine some of the considerations, limitations, and pitfalls we should consider when using DNA evidence.

11:00 a.m. 1:00 p.m.: Friday General Session: Saroo Brierley 
Perhaps no one knows the joy that comes from connecting with family better than Saroo Brierley. Saroo will share his remarkable story of how he used technology to reconnect with the land of his childhood and rediscover his family.

1:30 p.m. 3:30 p.m.: Getting the Most Out of Billions of Records on MyHeritage SuperSearch (Sponsored by MyHeritage) 
One of the best ways to maximize MyHeritage is to host your tree at MyHeritage, where the systems will automatically help you find new records, fill gaps in your existing tree, and provide matches that can help you efficiently discover new ancestors and family members. In this session, Mike Mansfield will help you learn how to move your tree from online tree systems to MyHeritage and how MyHeritage works with your tree to find new and additional information that you can easily evaluate and add to your tree.

3:00 p.m. 5:00 p.m.: Discover Your Japanese Ancestors 
Join Valerie Elkins, and learn how to find your Japanese ancestors in Japan. Discover how to obtain your family’s vital records from Japan and climb your family tree. Japanese are wonderful record-keepers, but accessing those records can be challenging without knowing how to proceed.

4:30 p.m. 6:30 p.m.: The Research Road Map: Your Path to Success 
Amy Johnson Crow explains why having a research plan is more than making a to-do list. See how having a good plan is essential to making progress in your research and making it less frustrating.

Saturday 2 March

8:00 a.m. 10:00 a.m.: Trace the Story of Immigrant Ancestors in 3 Steps (Power Hour) 
Susan Miller, D. Joshua Taylor, and Frederick Wertz explore 3 key steps to unlocking the story of your immigrant ancestors with the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society.

9:30 a.m. 11:30 a.m. : Examining Your DNA Matches with DNA Painter 
DNA Painter is a website that can help interpret and demystify your autosomal DNA results. Using practical examples, Jonny Perl will demonstrate how DNA Painter can be used for a variety of activities including chromosome mapping and relationship prediction for unknown DNA matches.

11:00 a.m. 1:00 p.m.: Saturday General Session: Jake Shimabukuro 
World renowned ukulele master Jake Shimabukuro will be the keynote speaker. Get ready to hear Jake’s inspiring story, and listen to the one-of-a-kind ukulele musician play the instrument like you’ve never heard it before.

1:30 p.m. 3:30 p.m.: Leading with Science at 23andMe (Sponsored by 23andMe) 
In this session, Sarah Lashkey will walk through how research works at 23andMe and how you can contribute to scientific discoveries.

3:00 p.m. 5:00 p.m.: The Silent Language of the Stones: Reading Gravestones through Symbols and Carvings 
Symbols and icons have been used on tombstones for centuries, but it was not until the mid-1800s that this secret language on the stones became popular. Joy Neighbors will explore these symbols and statues that tell stories of the deceased, including family relationships, religious affiliations, military service, occupations, and society memberships.

Local History & Genealogy Drop-In Club 2019

The Ottawa Public Library and Ottawa Branch Ontario Genealogical Society continue to offer drop in sessions, from 2-4 pm to work on your family tree, share research strategies, & discover what resources are available for your research.
Meet on the second floor at the Nepean Centrepointe Library. Gloria Tubman, Ken McKinlay and Mike More ensure that at least one of them is available at each session along with an OPL genealogy specialist.

 Tuesday 8 January, 2019 and every second Tuesday until May 28, 2019

Advance Notice: BCGS 2019 Seminar

The British Columbia Genealogical Society announces that Cyndi Ingle of Cyndi’s List will be keynote speaker at this year’s seminar. Date is Saturday, March 30, 2019. Tickets on sale now. Tickets are $70.00 for members; $95.00 for non-members.

Download the BCGS 2019 Seminar poster here (.pdf)

Sunday Sundries

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Mother Nature’s Tests
That's a new blog from Wayne Shepheard to encourage genealogists to explore the natural world, especially with respect to the areas in which their ancestors lived and the physical events that occurred during their lifetimes.

Machine Learning May Be Able To Predict If You’re In For A Healthy Old Age

Keeping fit: how to do the right exercise for your age

Under the Influence
My favourite CBC radio program, yet to jump the shark, is back on the air. The first episode of the new season, about spokesperson fails - from Oprah to Eric Clapton, is available as a podcast (mp3). Also episodes from previous seasons are being made available, for free, at www.cbc.ca/radio/podcasts/arts-culture/under-the-influence/ starting with the first season.

It’s taken thousands of years, but Western science is finally catching up to Traditional Knowledge

Seven charts that show the world is actually becoming a better place

How to Beat Science and Influence People:Policy Makers and Propaganda in Epistemic Networks

How not to fall for pseudoscience

P.E.I. digital newspaper collection expanding

With a grant from the National Heritage Digitization Strategy (NHDS) worth $45,685, the University of Prince Edward Island Island Newspapers project will add editions of the Examiner (Charlottetown), from the mid-1840s through the 1900s and L'impartial, a Tignish Acadian newspaper, from 1893 to 1915.

The money will go to a team of three or four people who will scan and upload the newspaper pages, and make them searchable. The work includes close to 35,000 pages just for the Examiner which merged with the Charlottetown Guardian in 1915.

Islandnewspapers.ca already includes more than 70 years from the Charlottetown Guardian, starting in 1890, along with other short-run papers from the 19th century.

You will perhaps recall a NHDS survey last spring. Genealogists were well represented in the those responding and identified newspaper digitization as the resource of greatest interest.

Findmypast adds Norfolk Parish Records

Norfolk Baptisms
Over 76,000 additional records have been added to the Findmypast collection of Norfolk parish baptisms. The additions span 1777 to 1990 and cover the parishes of North Creake, Ringland, Southwood, Thornham and Worstead. The collection now totals 1,910,448 records.

Each record will give you an original image of the parish register and a transcript of the details found in the records. The transcripts can vary depending on the age of the record and its condition, but most will include birth date, baptism date, parish and parent's names.

Norfolk Banns
Over 33,000 new Norfolk Banns are now available to search. These new additions cover the parishes of Rockland All Saints & St Andrew, Roughton, Snetterton and Yaxham. Banns of marriage are the public announcement in a Christian parish church of a forthcoming marriage and normally include the couple's names, residences, home parish and banns year. Images may reveal the second and third banns dates, the couple's marital statuses and the name of the minister who performed the banns.
The Banns collection now totals 484,649 records.

Norfolk Marriages
Over 27,000 new records with images covering the parishes of North Creake, Rockland All Saints & St Andrew, Snetterton, Somerleyton, Southwood, Wacton, Wells next the Sea, Westacre and Worstead. The new additions span the years 1777 to 1984 and will reveal a combination of names, dates and locations related to both the bride and groom.
The collection now totals 981,449 records.

Norfolk Burials
Search over 15,000 recent additions to our collection of Norfolk Burials covering the parishes of North Creake, Rockland All Saints & St Andrew, Southwood, Wells next the Sea and Worstead. The transcripts and images will list a combination of your ancestors' burial dates, ages and residences at time of death, and their birth years.
There are now 1,459,643 entries in this collection, not all conventional. What's the story behind the burial of "2 Men & A Boy" in 1580 in King's Lynn, "3 Russian Soldiers" and then "5 Russian Soldiers" in 1796 at Great Yarmouth.

The Celtic Connection

The Celtic Connection aims to provide a link between the Irish, Scottish and Welsh communities in Western Canada and the Northwestern U.S.A. and to extend the Celtic consciousness out into the larger community ... to provide a vital link between the Celts of ancient Europe and modern day Celts who have populated North America.
Published in Burnaby, BC it has a strong focus on music, theater, movies and interviews, current events and Irish, English, Scottish and Welsh community news.
You can read recent issues at http://celtic-connection.com/. Digitized issues from 1991 to 2004 are in the collection of Simon Fraser University Digitized Newspapers. The very first issue had an article A Wonderful Journey into Family History, by well known BC genealogist Eunice Robinson. A search for genealogy finds many more mentions.

BIFHSGO Past-Presidents

New Year's Day was the opportunity for BIFHSGO's two immediate past presidents to enjoy a laugh.

No collusion!

The Poor Laws

From the BBC In Our Time series on Radio 4, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how, from 1834, poor people across England and Wales faced new obstacles when they could no longer feed or clothe themselves, or find shelter.

Parliament, in line with the ideas of Jeremy Bentham and Thomas Malthus, feared hand-outs had become so attractive, they stopped people working to support themselves, and encouraged families to have more children than they could afford. To correct this, under the New Poor Laws it became harder to get any relief outside a workhouse, where families would be separated, husbands from wives, parents from children, sisters from brothers. Many found this regime inhumane, while others protested it was too lenient, and it lasted until the twentieth century.

One startling fact for me was that the workhouse in my home town of Great Yarmouth became a major source of bodies for medial education and research under the Anatomy Act of 1832.

Bonus material not in the original BBC broadcast is in the recording.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001m73

BIFHSGO DNA Special Interest Group

The first meeting of 2019 is on Saturday 5 January.

Leanne Cooper will talk about: Using Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) for Genealogy: A Case Study

The presentation demonstrates how mtDNA can be successfully used to answer a genealogical question.

There will be a round table discussion with remaining time.

9:30 am to 12:00 pm Room 115, City of Ottawa Archives, 100 Tallwood Drive, Ottawa, Ontario

For your calendar, meeting dates for the year are:

2 March, 2019
4 May, 2019
24 August, 2019
5 October, 2019
2 November, 2019

Yuletide R&R

Will LAC be SMART again in 2019?

One thing I've appreciated about LAC's operation over the past few years is the monthly reporting on digitization of First World War service files. LAC committed to having the job completed by the centenary of the end of the war. It was a model of the SMART approach:

Specific: Set concrete, clearly defined goals with specific points of success.
Measurable: Whatever the goal is, find ways to measure progress.
Achievable: Aim high, but within reason. Your goal should be a stretch, but something you could actually achieve.
Relevant: Find a goal that matters enough to you that you’ll be motivated to stick with it.
Time-bound: Set a reasonable timeline for your goal, and focus on the small wins along the way.

It worked. Monthly reporting meant that clients became aware of files within a month of them becoming available. The goal was achieved with time to spare.

Whenever I've asked about a follow-on to that project I've been told about "indigenous materials". What materials?  The SMART approach worked well for the service files. Why not carry on with it?

In 2019, as long as LAC makes the information available, I intend reporting monthly on Co-Lab progress. As a benchmark here's the status of various challenges as of year's end 2018 with green highlighting projects in which progress has been made since my last report.

Legendary train robber and prison escapee Bill Miner, 12% complete
War Diaries of the First World War: 1st Canadian Division, 36% complete.
Japanese-Canadians: Second World War, 64% complete.
The Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918–1919, 100% complete.
The Call to Duty: Canada's Nursing Sisters , 65% complete.
Rosemary Gilliat (Eaton)’s Arctic diary and photographs, 33% complete.
New France and First Nations relations, 28% complete.
Correspondence between Sir Robert Borden and Sir Sam Hughes, 100% complete.
Letters from Wilfrid Laurier to Zoé Lafontaine/Laurier, 100% complete.

LAC does have a variety of other benchmarks based on quarterly, annual or multi-year targets — see Progress Report Q2 (July to September 2018).

The overdue 1926 census of the Prairie Provinces is one dataset many genealogists are waiting for, supposed to become available this quarter. As LAC strives for greater visibility SMART monthly progress reporting would assist in maintaining contact with its largest client group.

Is Canadiana really free

I waited until the start of the year to see if all Canadiana content included in Early Canadiana Online, Héritage, and Canadiana Online would be free as promised.

The first few pages of Wiggins' storm herald, with almanac, 1883 displayed until I was faced with the message:

Subscription Required
Canadiana Online is funded by its users through subscriptions. Become a subscriber today to access all of the site's content and features.

The same thing happened with 77th Overseas Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, Ottawa.

UPDATE:  Full assess without subscription was implemented on 2 January.

http://www.canadiana.ca/

What's ahead for Ancestry

For the record, the following is a year end/new year message from Margo Georgiadis, CEO of Ancestry.

Dear Ancestry Community, 

As 2018 comes to a close, I want to personally thank you for being a member of the Ancestry community. We appreciate that you’ve chosen us to provide you with the tools to enable your journeys of personal discovery.

All of us at Ancestry are committed to making family history discovery simpler, easier and more valuable for our members. As an avid user of our products, I was honoured to join Ancestry in May and have the opportunity to lead this incredible company. During the past six months, many of you have sent me notes with suggestions to improve our services, for which I am enormously grateful. The power of Ancestry has always been in its community and the ability for all of us to partner together to create the best Ancestry experience for as many people as possible.

My goal for the future of Ancestry is to build on our 30 years of family history leadership, bringing together an obsession for great customer experiences and using technology to unlock more possibilities for our members to create family trees, find and share stories, and make meaningful connections.

We have already started that work. Throughout 2018, we invested to comprehensively upgrade our technology and customer service platforms which underpin our ability to provide a faster stream of improvements. This new capability already has allowed us to significantly increase the number and quality of hints, add over 260 million new records from around the world, and release our next generation of ethnicity estimates for our AncestryDNA® offering, making results more precise.

In 2019 we will continue to bring together the strengths of Ancestry with a laser focus on delivering even better experiences to you. We have listened to your feedback and our ambitious plans for the new year include debuting many features that you have suggested. These include new tools for making discoveries in your family tree, an enhanced experience for connecting with your DNA Matches, innovations harnessing the power of our unmatched digital records collections coupled with our DNA network, and making many new historical records available online.

Thank you again for being a part of our Ancestry community. We look forward to continuing to partner with you in the months and years ahead. Please continue to share your feedback and suggestions.

Wishing you and your families all the best in 2019 and a year filled with personal discoveries! 

Margo Georgiadis
CEO, Ancestry

Comment:  This is the first communication from the CEO since she assumed the role last spring. The goal of "making many new historical records available online" is the last mentioned. The pace of new titles has slowed since earlier in 2018, notably for Canada and the UK. It's not a lack of material; Findmypast continues to add British titles (almost) weekly.

Yuletide R&R